Hank Baker bought the dog "from a lady that lives on Highway 106" four years ago.

His wife, Lisa, had long dreamed of owning a pooch like Chi Chi.

"I always wanted a hairless dog because I thought they looked so cool," she said. "I like to have things that are different. My husband thought I had lost my mind."

The couple, who live in Winterville, own three other dogs - a rat terrier, a Chihuahua and an Old English sheepdog. Chi Chi is the only one who lives inside.

Lisa Baker readily admitted that Chi Chi is the favorite of her pets.

"She always wants a belly rub," Baker said. "Sometimes when you stop rubbing her she will put her paw on your hand and scratch."

Being hairless can make the winter months difficult for Chi Chi.

"Chi Chi has her own comforter in her bed," Baker said. "She likes to get under the cover then stick only her head out. Most of the time you can see only her eyes and nose. I have tried sweaters, and T-shirts, but she hates them. When I try to put them on her, she will hide under the covers."

Chi Chi's hobbies include eating, lying in the sunshine and cuddling with the three Baker children. Meeting new people does not fall under Chi Chi's list of her favorite things.

"My Chi Chi does have a chihuahua temperament, so she either likes you or she don't," Lisa Baker explained.

Baker admitted that when she brought Chi Chi home, several members of her family and friends said, "Gross!"

"Most think she's ugly," Baker wrote in her entry. "Some are scared of her, but I think she is the best, most beautiful dog in the world.

She signed her e-mail: "Gooooooo! Chi Chi Baby!"

Ugly Harper

We're not sure why not having hair equates ugly in the pet world, but that does seem to be the case. This cat gave Chi Chi a run for her money.

"He's pretty and ugly at the same time," Hubba Harper said of his cat who he named (appropriately) Ugly Harper.

Harper's ex-wife, Yvonne Taylor, does not agree with this assessment.

"That thing is something from outer space," she said.

Hubba and Ugly Harper live in Hull, but often travel to Taylor's home in Royal Palm Beach, Fla.

Taylor doesn't mind Harper bringing Ugly along, but she'll tell you she doesn't want the cat wandering all over her house. "Ugly has to stay in his room," she said.

The first time Taylor met Ugly, her first instinct was to try to put clothes on him to cover up that creepy loose skin. "Like E.T. with big ears," she said.

Let's hope Ugly doesn't read this. He clearly already has self-esteem issues over his lack of hair. When Ugly is at his Hull home, he will persistently try to bathe the rat terrier and the other cats who live there with his tongue. He frequently gets hairballs.

Ugly or no, Taylor has been moved to see the love that's grown between Harper and his cat. The cat sleeps on Harper's pillow. They never spend a night apart.

"He's even talking about sending Ugly's picture out in Christmas cards," said Taylor. "This coming from a man who has never sent a card in his life!"

And he admits that some people might think Ugly is, um, not exactly beautiful.

"He might be a damn alien," Harper agreed.

If Ugly Harper had won the Classic City Ugly Pet Contest, they would have donated the prize money to a bird rescue organization - "Since they both like birds (Hubba's favorite is Wild Turkey!)" Taylor wrote in a letter.

Inu-Itsu

Inu-Itsu was born blind, but that doesn't keep him from being quite possibly the happiest dog alive. He has a smile that could out-smile the Cheshire Cat.

His human mommy, Veronica Doster-Booth, and human daddy, Randy Booth, only had to say "steps" to Inu-Itsu to get him up to make his way up the stairs to the newspaper's photo studio. Once there, he navigated the new surroundings like he'd lived there his whole life.

The couple's dog family includes seven other Siberian Huskies. Inu-Itsu runs and plays with the others without a problem. "He amazes me every day," Doster-Booth said.

Inu-Itsu is rumored to also do a pretty good Stevie Wonder impersonation.

His name, according to his parents, is the Eskimo word for snow blind.

Inu-Itsu wrote his own letter to enter the Classic City Ugly Pet Contest.

"My mom and dad tell me I'm handsome," he wrote. "But I hear people ask, 'What's wrong with his eyes?' So I told Mom, if I can help a charity I say, 'Send my pic in to the contest.'"

We love Inu-Itsu's special heart.

Grrr

"She's the only dog who can say her name," said Grrr's human daddy, John MacKay.

One Christmas, a little girl in MacKay's family gave him a box from the Build-A-Bear store. Inside was the puppy he decided to name Grrr.

"We thought she was a chihuahua," said Grrr's dog mommy Lorena De Santa. "She turned into this."

Grrr's vet thinks she's a mix of a chihuahua and a long-haired dachshund.

Grrr enjoys chasing a green ball and responds to words like "cookie" and "walk." She gets along with two of the family's four cats. "One is nasty," said De Santa.

The family is in the process of moving from Tampa, Fla., to a home in Bishop.

Not Ugly Enough

Piglet

We here at the Athens-Banner Herald think Piglet is too cute for the Classic City Ugly Pet Contest.

Human mommy Elizabeth Marlowe does not agree. "He really looks like a mutant," she insisted.

Her 14-year-old son, Jackson Oglesby, who spends part of his time in Athens and part with his mom in Loganville, also thinks Piglet has a face only a mother could love. He once made a movie about a couple of kids who were trying to save a mutant lab experiment gone awry from being euthanized. Guess who played the lab experiment?

Piglet is a mix of Jack Russell terrier and pit bull but Marlowe said he sometimes looks like a "mole-rat crossed with a pig."

Marlowe stumbled across the abandoned Piglet one day on her way to work. After searching, fruitlessly, for Piglet's owner, Marlowe decided to keep him - despite the way she thinks he looks.